One of our hopes on this sabbatical was to take advantage of the moments, even the small opportunities, with our children. That time after school is a funny thing! We have spent the year trying to find the right balance among ... down time, structure, enrichment, creative play, socialization, family time, etc. Of course, each child's needs are different! Everyday we have high hopes for how the day will go. Some days we are disappointed, other days elated. This past week has been a good one. Brady had a school project and needed to build a solar system model. While this occupied his time (and mine!), Connor was easily engaged with his Red Sox activity booklet and the opportunity to look up baseball statistics with Dad! Oh and the Math Songs website, shared by Aunt Sarah and Cousin Nicholas, was a big hit this week! Connor, if left alone, will usually go into Star Wars play mode. But if engaged, he will happily read, do math activities, or do other academically based activities. We try to give him the space for the first, but our patience usually presses us to engage him and direct him to the second! Maggie has continued to immerse herself in imaginary play. She loves to play school, where she is the teacher and her babies (dolls) and imaginary "kids" are the students. As soon as she gets home, she sets up her pajamas and blankets over the entire family room ... somehow this is her school, which includes reading time, song time, nap time, etc. We love hearing her replay her experiences. She also incorporates names into her play based on the names fresh in her mind - this is so funny because she has kids named: Aunt Clare, Sweetie, Uncle Paul, Christopher, Reese, Caden Green, Cassidy ... whatever is on her mind that day!! Just today her dailogue was: "So 5 plus 1 equals 6? What I'm hearing you say is 5 plus 1 equals 6, right? Good job, that's right. I'm so proud of you." Do we love her teacher or what?! We felt that we had a couple of "dream afternoons" this week, with Brady building his solar system model, Connor first investigating Red Sox trivia and then reading, and Maggie playing - all with us involved, and following their leads. The pictures give some idea of how it looked!
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